Mayo County Council Arts Service is delighted to announce the recipients of Awards and Bursaries for 2017; Amateur Drama Award, Music Recording Assistance Award and Tyrone Guthrie Regional Bursaries.

Tyrone Guthrie Bursary

Saoirse Wall, visual artist and Donal Sarsfield, composer are the recipients of the Tyrone Guthrie Regional Bursary 2017. Every year Mayo County Council offers two bursary awards to artists born or living in Mayo, to take a residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, County Monaghan. The Tyrone Guthrie Centre is a residential workplace for artists, dedicated to supporting and facilitating creativity and is the largest residency of its type for artists in the country. The centre is universally well-regarded for successfully providing a creative space outside everyday life, which gives artists time and space to focus on ideas and work.

Donal Sarsfield from Ballyheane, as a composer Donal primarily records, transforms and organises sounds. His work has been performed at San Francisco Tape Music Festival, Banff Centre for the Arts, South Bank London, Darmstadt International Summer Course for New Music 2012, World Music Days ISCM Belgium, Sonorities Belfast 2008, 2013 & 2015, Crash Ensemble FreeState VI + X Dublin, Aberdeen Sound Festival, Civitanova Dance Festival 2014, the Royal Opera House in London and Islandeady Church by Cór Mhaigh Eo and the Castlebar Gospel Choir.

Saoirse Wall is an artist from Westport, Co. Mayo. She received a BA in Fine Art Media in the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 2014. Her work was recently displayed in the Custom House Gallery, Westport, and the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. Recent exhibitions include ‘Fools’ Bells Fall’, Hotel Maria Kapel, Hoorn, Netherlands (2016); ‘Knowledge and other myths’, Platform Arts, Belfast (2016); ‘Learning From Georges', Fokidos, Athens, Greece (2015), and Tulca Festival of Visual Arts, Galway (2014). She was shortlisted for the Hennessy Portrait Prize in 2014 and for the PLASTIK Critical Forum Award in 2017. Wall’s practice encompasses video, performance, sound, and sculpture. Her work engages with the body, the gaze, online communities; it is informed by gut feelings, sensory impressions, and bodily responses.

Music Recording Assistance Award

The Kerbs, a four piece alternative rock band from Foxford in Mayo are the recipients of the Music Recording Assistance Award 2017. The response to the call for applications has shown once again the breadth and the quality of music making in the county. The field included a fantastic cross section of genres, and the high calibre of applicants made the selection difficult work for the assessment panel. The Music Recording Assistance Award was established to support the recording of original music by musicians living in the county and the recipients receive up to €800 towards the costs of an original music recording.

Band members include Mark McHale (vocalist and guitarist), Alex Stupar (lead guitar), Noel Gallagher (bass guitar), and Kevin Holmes (drums). In November 2017, the band released their debut single "Changes" accompanied by a stop-motion music video which was written, photographed, and edited entirely by the four members of the band. The Kerbs are preparing to take the 2018 festival season by storm and root themselves in the Irish music scene. The band plan to return to the recording studio to add a 5th track to their forthcoming debut EP, before it’s release in March 2018.

Amateur Drama Awards

Clann Machua, the amateur drama group form Kilitmagh have been awarded the Mayo County Council Amateur Drama Award for 2017. Clann Machua was formed in 2010 and has become very active in the local community. The group has a Youth Theatre which also run annual productions. The current director is Sean Langan. Recent productions include Juno and Paycock and Hunger March.

Mayo Arts Service Awards and Bursaries

All awards and bursaries are advertised annually in the local papers and online. Applicants need to show significant achievement in their chosen field or demonstrate a high degree of promise attested by references or other forms of support from established figures in the arts. All submissions are assessed by an independent, expert panel who were extremely impressed with the quality and standard this year

Mayo Arts Service would like to wish the very best to all recipients. These awards and bursaries reflect some of the opportunities for professional artistic development that Mayo Arts Service provides to arts practitioners in Mayo. The Arts Service recognises the rich contribution which artist make to the cultural life of the county. The range of applications for this award highlights the wide range, quality and diversity of established and emerging arts practitioners and groups in Mayo.